Sir Peter Luff says unfair schools funding is a "running sore"

A WORCESTERSHIRE MP has welcomed an extra £5 million for schools in the county - saying it was long overdue.

Sir Peter Luff says unfair school funding has been "a running sore" that was allowed to go on for far too long.

As your Worcester News revealed on Friday, an extra £350 million has been announced to dish out across the country's worst funded areas.

It includes Worcestershire, which will get an additional £5 million in April 2015.

The county is the145th worst funded local education authority in the UK out of 151 areas.

Sir Peter has also praised the efforts of Worcester MP Robin Walker, who was instrumental in arguing the case for it.

He said: "Schools in Worcestershire have been underfunded for too long because of a random and unfair funding system that successive Governments have used to allocate money to schools. "It has been a running sore locally for decades.

"I have been campaigning for change for nearly a quarter of a century - I was first selected as a local candidate in 1990 and I have been lobbying and campaigning for fairer school funding in every year and election since then.

"Since 2010 Robin Walker’s work on this issue has been magnificent and a lot of the credit must go to him.

"This outcome proves that if you at first you don’t succeed, then in politics you really must, try, try and try again."

Head teachers and parents in Worcestershire have welcomed the news but many are concerned it may not go far enough.

Education minister David Laws says the Government is aiming for further reform of the system from 2015 to make it fairer.

Sir Peter said: "This isn’t enough to sort out the problem entirely, but it’s a great start.

"It will be the first time in a quarter of a century that funding has not got relatively worse for Worcestershire schools.

Despite this unfair funding, Worcestershire's schools have done remarkably well recently in the league tables and pupils in the country are achieving excellent results."

At the moment each pupil in Worcester gets an average of £5,100 per head every year, £1,333 lower than those in Birmingham.

Comments (2)

Sir Peter BLuff has just like his two Tory companions Balwin and Walker managed to get through his political reign by being a YES MAN to his PARTY / Government, while shouting (quietly) the odds locally.

Sir Peter BLuff has just like his two Tory companions Balwin and Walker managed to get through his political reign by being a YES MAN to his PARTY / Government, while shouting (quietly) the odds locally.Jabbadad

Here we go again, another Tory yes man slapping himself and his mates on the back, its stupid time as we are get closer to a general election, we will all be getting the promises things will be better and that the government will bring in this and that but its just another tory CON,
Jabbadad is right.
After all the ******S by the councty council over the cuts, do we trust them to really use this funding for what its intended for? I dont.

Here we go again, another Tory yes man slapping himself and his mates on the back, its stupid time as we are get closer to a general election, we will all be getting the promises things will be better and that the government will bring in this and that but its just another tory CON,
Jabbadad is right.
After all the ******S by the councty council over the cuts, do we trust them to really use this funding for what its intended for? I dont.green49